Bristol Buckingham
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The Bristol Buckingham was a World War II design for a medium day bomber for the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was built in small numbers, and used primarily for transport and liaison duties.
Development
In 1940 Bristol was working on a project called the Bristol Beaumont, essentially a bomber variant of the Beaufighter. This is somewhat ironic, considering that the Beaufighter itself started as a bomber design, the Beaufort. The Beaumont never proceeded beyond the design stage.In 1941, the new specification B.2/41 called for a replacement for the Bristol Blenheim that could carry 4,000 lb (1.8 t) of bombs on daylight raids over Germany. At the time the RAF no longer had any medium bomber capable of carrying out daytime missions, and for this role any new design would have to have excellent performance as well as defensive armament. Bristol responded with the Buckingham B. Mk 1, powered by the new very powerful Bristol Centaurus engine, and mounting gun installations in the nose, dorsal and ventral turrets. The first flight took place on February 4, 1943.
By the time the design entered production the requirements had already changed, and this sort of duty generally fell to night missions with the De Havilland Mosquito instead. However the first batch of 119 had already been built, so they were converted for high-speed courier duties with RAF Transport Command. The gun installations were removed and four seats and windows fitted in the fuselage. They were then designated Buckingham C. Mk I.
Specifications (Buckingham C. Mk. I)
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